BENDIGAMOS - NOVEL OF LOVE AND ESCAPE

Dettagli

Categoria: IN ENGLISH - WE WRITE

Pubblicato Martedì, 12 Maggio 2020 13:37

Scritto da Anna Treves Cohen

Visite: 1285

              BENDIGAMOS

              NOVEL OF LOVE AND ESCAPE

“To my fantastic big family”

                               Bendigamos

                                                            “Bendigamos al Altissimo,

                                            Al Senor que nos criò

                                           Demosle agradecimiento

                                            Por los bienes que nos dio.

                                            Alabado sea su Santo Nombre

                                           Porque siempre nos apiado

                                            Load al Senor que es bueno,

                                              que para siempre su merced….”

1)Dona Evelina

Dona Evelina Levis was in her kitchen : the fire was lighted up and the candles were big enough to last through the night, she was enjoying some peace after all the work before Shabbat. The men were already downstairs and the small opening were to push the small iron balls had been checked before but there was nothing to be worried about, it was just a normal Friday evening and it was cold enough to discourage the soldiers to come around.  The Friday meal was ready on the fire and Evelina was just starting to read the book with the pages hidden in between when she heard people at the door screaming to open… She ran to throw the ball in the opening, she covered with some plates the machine and opened the door.

“Good evening, Dona Evelina, were is your father? Where are your brothers?” the officer asked while the soldier were looking around for strange things .”They are still out for work, Sir, they will be here in a short while, before the sunset.”

In the meanwhile the iron ball fell on the small room two floors under the kitchen: it was a nice room with the pavement of sand and all over heavy fabrics were put to avoid all possible noises: the fabrics were sawn with motives of plants and leaves with beautiful colours but their main purpose was to reduce the noise of the niggunim(melodies) and of the tefillot( prayers) of the minian( it is needed a group of ten man to say blessings) that was used to meet very often if it was safe enough. The men put the sefarim( Torah scrolls) and books in the double layer of the walls in the room and took the stairs to enter each private cellar from where they could go to their houses.

Evelina’s father with his sons got out in a small alley, far away from their house and they came back home with a quiet and relaxed attitude: they were wearing the  dresses which they use to work as manufacturers of precision tools for boating and they were bringing home a new prototype of lenses for telescope they received from Holland. They were ready to talk about work if, as they assumed, the iron ball had announced an unwelcome visit. Senor Levis opened the door,  followed by his sons and started to greet the controller and his soldiers:

” Good evening officer, how come you are honouring me and my family of your visit? Evelina, did you forget to offer something to our guests?” “How silly I am! Would you like some sangria just made? Or maybe do you prefer a glass of vino tinto?”

“No thanks, Dona Evelina, we just came to look for some strange habit of yours, for your Saturday but it looks like you are no more used to prepare for it, lucky you are!”

“We are faithful to Dona Isabella of Castiglia, our queen, our saint and we surely do not do what She forbids !” Said senor Levis but as soon as the door was closed he lost his quiet approach and he was very pale and had difficulties to breathe.

Those visits became more and more frequent: it looked like the Saint Inquisition had choose the Levis family as one of the pillars of the crypto Jewish community of Toledo. Notwithstanding the forced conversions, the burnings on the city squares of books or of marranos, accused of betrayal because they continued to worship Judaism instead of Catholicism, the Levis and many other families tried to follow the Jewish customs, praying in the cellars, using the mikveh (ritual bath), reading prayer books that appeared as other kind of books, hiding sefer Torah Torah scrolls) and keeping a kosher home…

2) A proposal

Guido Cohen de Veali

That year had been very important for the world and a lot of things  happened: everywhere else a new hope was in the air but  the space for the Jewish people was shrinking more and more. A friend of senor Levis told  him that they were preparing a new expedition toward the Indies and that  Isabella the Queen of Spain would pay for all the expenses to arm the three boats, to enlist whatever people was needed. They said they wanted to sail to Indies through the west side of the ocean to win the commercial war with England. The friend of senor Levis was a cartographer and he was quite sure that senor Colombo was not against the Jews and in Genoa, his original city, there have never been persecutions like those to which they were accustomed. Levis thought to meet senor Colombo and  try to sell him his nautical equipments and moreover that particular lens able to show every small thing far away in the sea, something new also for a captain like Colombo.

Senor Levis needed to take care also of the private life of his family: Evelina was eighteen years old and it was the right time to look for a husband for her : the wedding would be the first happy moment after the death of Dona Maria, two years before.

Levis knew that between Evelina and Guido Cohen de Veali there was some feeling and smiles and shy looks were exchanged when they were in the same room. àGuido was a son of a close friend who has been killed with his wife during an autodafè, (forced conversion) when, for priests and populace, the conversion and humiliation of the Jews had not been enough.. The abel, the time of mourning, was concluded a few months before: it had been difficult for Guido to stand the sorrow secretly, free to cry only during the rare Kaddish recited when he was able to collect a minian in one of the cellars hidden in the Toledo Juderia.

Guido was trading with Holland and was thinking to move to Amsterdam where Inquisition was not as strong as in Spain but it was not easy to leave the sun, the community, the sweet language of his fathers to go in a humid town, with dams all over, where the Sephardic Jews had to be accepted by the Ashkenazim. Sometimes they had to go back to their previous religion because there has been the autodafè and often they were living in between the two faiths. They did not know anymore the basics of Judaism after years or generations of people who were forbidden to learn and read the Torah or a prayer book, because this could jeopardize their families.

Guido was a nice young man, smart and full of creativity and was ready for the new challenge. He was preparing for his move but before that, he would have liked to talk with senor Levis and to ask him for Evelina with whom he played when they were children and that he saw becoming a beautiful woman, clever and educated.  Very well dressed but also very worried, he arrived at Levis’ house and asked the old housekeeper to introduce him to senor Levis’s study. The housekeeper has been in the house since the wedding of senor Levis and was like a granny for Evelina. Senor Levis was not surprised and was very pleased of  Guido’s request but said to him that only Evelina could answer to him and he would talk to her that same evening. He talked to him as to the father he was missing so much and told him that he would have been pleased if the answer of Evelina would have been a yes.

Guido left relieved, hoping that Evelina would become his wife in a short time and when a dinner invitation came from  Levis’ house, he was quite certain that there was Evelina approval and started to prepare a gift for his novia. He took out from the safe the jewellery box of his mother and chose a bracelet with the same earrings that his mother loved, to give to Evelina that evening, a precious necklace for the engagement and a beautiful ring for the day of the wedding as it was the ring that certified the wedding itself and was the last gift in preparation for the ceremony.

At Levis’ home the same emotion and a lot of things to do: all the relatives have been invited and there would have been almost fifteen people. Evelina was wearing the dress she  usually wore on Shabbat and joy was glowing on her: Guido has been his childhood friend and they continued to look at each other even when they were grown up and they were happy when they could meet on social occasion, as at the end of 1400 the sexes were living separated lives, mostly in  the middle and high classes.

All along Guido had been the best friend of Evelina’s brothers and he knew almost everything about her because the three brothers were fond of her and they were proud of Evelina’s talent on music and on the studies she was doing at home with the help of good teachers from the Juderia.

In the house, the smell of rice, of vegetables, of chicken with  paella was the smell of an evening of joy and hope, the first after many years. Senor Levis had invited Guido to come half an hour before the other guests to give to the novios time to meet alone for the first time and to decide together how they would give the good news to the guests. Finally! Someone  is knocking at the door: the maid run to open it and Senor Levis comes to welcome Guido with a big hug, then he puts his hand on his head to give him a Berahà. (blessing)

Evelina enters, beautiful and shy but with a light on her eyes and her father brings together the hands of his children who show the same, strong love that will protect  the journey of their lifes. They are eighteen and twenty years old and if the Inquisition will let them, they will have a family and a long time together!

3) The wedding.

The big preparation was almost done, Evelina had put her dress on her bed and the day before she had been to the Mikve with senora Seroya : the ritual bath was mandatory for all the girls close to their weddings and  certified their purity before the marriage. The Mikveh  was very well hidden inside the cellars of the Juderia because it was forbidden for the conversos and nobody should have known if and when they would use it.

For Evelina, going the first time there without her mother, was almost unbearable but Senora Seroya had been a very close friend of her mummy and going with her was her best choice. The blessing of her father and their emotion with all the memories of the mourning made that evening sad and happy at the same time: Evelina went to her room and started to cry without understanding if it was the longing for her mother or was  the anxiety for the wedding and her new life…

Senor Levis had to worry also for the future of his wealth, specially of what he hasn’t been able to send to Holland; his plans needed  friendly people ready to take some risk and Paulito with Ines, the servants which were catholic but faithful to the family from a long time, were ready to help taking care of what he would decide not to sell. He decided they would watch on his house and on what they had hidden under their small house in the village, on a dark night some month before. There was also Maria which was a marrana conversa. When she was a small child inside a convent, Senor Levis took her out with the help of some catholic friends, before bringing her to his house secretly.

Maria had lost her parents during an autodafè and Dominican priests took the child to a convent where the nuns made her work and pray Jesus Christ even if she was a five years old baby. Even if she was very young, she remembered the Shemà and when she was safe at Levis’s house seven years after that, she was making the netillat jadaim (washing of the hands with a blessing) with the right berachà and little by little, with the help of the family, she learned again to be Jewish inside and Catholic outside like all the crypto Jews: kasherut and Shabbat when nobody could see but on Sunday at the church saying aloud all the prayers.  Now that she was a young lady, she understood the danger always present in her life and she was hoping that senor Levis would ask her to follow him to Amsterdam where she could finally be openly Jewish, being able to study, work, pray and live without problems.

It was different for Paulito and Ines which were Catholics  with a family of children and grandchildren. What they would do when the house would be closed? They were very worried but at the moment they were also happy for Evelina  and for the wedding close by.

Their anxiety did not last long because senor Levis called the three of them with two good solutions: Paulito and Ines would have been in charge to watch over the  Levis and the Cohen houses even if almost empty and when the family would leave them, they would have a sum of money, sufficiently large to live without worries. A legal act would give them the right to stay in the houses even if a royal disposition could be emanated against the property of the Jews. Don Levis knew that it would have been difficult and dangerous to come back and that he had been very lucky to be able to send his money, little by little, to his bank in Holland: what  really made him sad, much more than losing his house, was to see for the last time the tomb of his wife and of his parents.

Maria was silent and was worried for what senor Levis would tell  her but the light of a big smile made her more beautiful: He asked her to follow them in Holland to help Evelina in those first years of marriage: she would have needed help and support for the new house and BH (please God) when the children would come . Paulito, Ines, Maria started to thank senor Levis in every way but he did not like all that and sent them away to finish what was needed for the wedding the next day.

At sunset the guest arrived, in the house the scent of the flowers was all over  and the novia was more than beautiful even if, according to the Jewish tradition,  she did not wear  jewellery: she would have put on ring and necklaces and earings only after the Kuppà (wedding canopy ceremony). Guido was coming with his two best friends and he was a bit pale because of fasting, as Evelina. They had started the fast since the previous evening. The emotion was tiring him but his eyes were of a happy man who is seeing his future life and loving it. Don Levis  took them in his study where the men were praying silently without books. From there, all the guests saw Guido with Evelina brothers entering in the living room while a guitar was playing with the songs of the Juderia . The women were already in the hall and when  the man took a seat, Evelina with a white precious shawl on her face entered with her father. Guido lifted her shawl and their hearts joined through their eyes and their smiles.

Don Levis said the berachot for the wedding and a friend read the Ketubà: it was a standard one and it did not mention anything about their properties, as it should have been, because if so, the Inquisition could have gathered a lot of information jeopardizing the newlywed couple and their families and it would have been really dangerous: moreover a Jewish weddings was forbidden, being them conversos but hopefully it would remain secret. Guido, at the end of the ceremony, broke the glass from where they drank and the couple exchanged a small shy kiss.

Paulito was not there because he was at the door looking for priests or soldiers passing by, and this would have changed  a happy day into a very sad one.

4) Palos

After the wedding, the Levis brothers left for Palos where the cartographer had promised them a work on the Colombo’s boats. But when they met him, they had a nasty surprise: only one of the three of them could sail on the Santa Maria which was the more important of the ships, where Colombo and their friends would be. Gavriel and Leone were either too young to be enrolled as officers or maybe what  don Levis had offered had not been sufficient to guarantee the job for all the three of them.

Meanwhile the rumours on the publication of an order of expulsion for Jews and Arabs were growing: people were talking of this law that was sending them away. They would not have  any permission to keep money and properties that instead would have been confiscated  by the Crown

Luckily, in the past months, the Levis family managed to send out money of the country in every possible way to save their capital  and at last also that  of the Cohen de Veali family. The only remaining properties were the houses but, hopefully, Paulito and Ines would watch over them, maybe avoiding  with their presence, the requisition by the Crown.

Gavriel and Leone were looking for another way to move from Spain and finally they found two places on a boat that would leave for Palermo and then for Turkey: during the trip they would decide whether  to stop in Sicily, where the boat would stay long enough to understand how  would be the political and economic perspective in southern Italy. However If the expulsion decree would be soon enforced also there, they would decide to go to Istanbul where Jews were a respected minority, free to worship as long as the dimmi taxation was payed. The boys were working on their boat but they tried to stay together, foreseeing the difficult times to come. At the end, the edict was published and the number of people on the streets of Palos was growing day by day. There was people who, as the Levis, had the feeling that the persecution would come and they had organized their exit from the country, but a number of people  who were not rich or educated, did not have time to understand that they had to sell  whatever they had, and now they were just leaving everything behind, moving with their families without knowing where to go and how! It was difficult to find a place on the commercial ships that were leaving from the ports. Often they just started to walk toward Portugal or France….

Others were paying for a short trip toward the African coasts but it was dangerous because  pirates were ready to take people and make them slaves. On the African land there were  slaves merchants who were waiting to buy the slaves from the pirates: they were very dangerous times and also the future of moriscos and marranos was dark and unclear.

The ninth of Av was coming and it was a terrible day for the Jews that could not travel but only they could fast, remembering the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem. People was saying that Colombo was leaving right on that day, not knowing the bad luck that sailing on the day of fast could bring . The ship of Gavriel and Leon would leave at the beginning of the week. In the end also Colombo’s boats would leave the day after the fasting: since the sailors were superstitious, just the voice that it would have been a wrong day to sail, convinced Colombo to change the date to start the trip.

5) Departure

The evening before their departure, the three brothers were sitting in the tavern of Alfonsino for a last farewell. Alfonsino was the owner and they had choose to see each other always there, since it was impossible to send for messages, and it was easier to know that every  evening someone would be there: they were always sitting at the last table at the end of the alley and they were organizing how to stay in touch between Amsterdam, Istanbul, Palermo and Indies, what to bring on their boats, how to understand if someone would be a friend or an enemy…

The table was clean  and the floor was washed every morning throwing water under the tables.  When it was open for business, Alfonsino dog and cats  were eating all what was falling from the plates. Moreover the cats held off the rats that in Palos were bigger then the cats. To defend their children from the rats the mothers were keeping the babies suspended while they were sleeping , with the advantage that those beds were nicely moving and keeping the children quiet.

The cellar was dark from the smoke and the light was coming only from the door but that ugly place had become a familiar one, as a small house far away from home. That evening the boys laughed and cried together, already missing father and sister, their house, their town and  Andalusia where once upon a time Arabs and Jews were living together in peace. Also don Louis came that evening and he tried to cheer them up with wine and roasted fish, telling them how Istanbul was beautiful and how was interesting what Colombo was doing, opening a new way to reach the Indies, without pirates and wars.

 Don Louis knew that every trip was then dangerous for the weather and for the pirates but he had strong faith on the future and on the discoveries. He was a marrano who did not stop practicing Judaism even if with his life on the move, it was terribly difficult and dangerous: that’s why he did not have a family but now he bounded himself to this three young men as his children. He was hoping that they could find the Indies on the other way around and put together a triangular business with a nice future.

After a long farewell with Aron, Gabriel and Leon directed to the ship Selim: they would sleep on the ship because it would sail at sunrise. They had already brought everything on their cabin and in the double bottom of the trunk they were keeping money and Judaica they wished to bring with them on their new life. They had a very small cabin with two beds one over the other, but they were alone and they could put tefillin and pray and moreover talk of the past and of the future, hoping not to suffer  sea sickness.

Against the nausea they got two necklaces with a small bottle of vinegar and aromatic herbs used on the ground not to smell the terrible stinks in the streets and on the boat it would have been used as emetic.

6) On the Santa Maria and....

Don Louis would travel on board of the Santa Maria, the Columbus admiral ship, with Aharon and maybe they would share  the same cabin: Aharon was in charge of the food and beverage and this would have helped  him to decide what all would have eaten on the boat,  with a chance to respect the kasherut, by avoiding the meat, while Don Louis, being the official cartographer would have been frequently on the main bridge to check the  route and to eventually  correct or change his maps at least during the first part of the trip, when they would travel along known coasts and lands. When they would  see again the lands on arrival, he would have been able to design new maps for the new way to Indies.

Aharon, as his brothers, brought his tefillin, prayer shawl and tefillot books in the small room he was sharing with Don Louis who was a crypto-Jew. In this way not only Aharon would have been free to pray but also Don Louis  could pray: it would have been dangerous for him, being a marrano, to bring religious things during his trips. Aharon was quiet, not aware of  dangers to come: he could not imagine that  checking on the food on the ship would become a nightmare as the days would go by and when there would  be not enough food.  He could not imagine that he would have to defended  food with arms against sailors almost starving, trying to eat whatever was not kept closed and defended.

                                                    -.-.-.-

When Evelina, Guido and don Levis left the house with Maria, Paulito and Ines locked themselves inside the house, started to put everything in order, closing room after room, covering with white sheets all the furnishing and beds, leaving for them only the kitchen, their room and the patio who was on the small street and it was the way to connect their house with the other houses of the juderia. They did the same job on  Guido’s house of which they kept, for their use, a room, kitchen and patio, that could be helpful if them or any friend of the family would need help or a way to hide or to escape: they knew that  times were very difficult for the Jews, or marranos alike and also them, even if Catholics, as servants of Jewish people would  always be kept on suspicion

7) Toward the horizon.

During the first hours of the morning, on the Santa Maria, the captain called all the people, checking their names and mansions and this was a good occasion for Aharon to verify if others Jews would be on board. Some name were Jewish without any doubt but this was not a warranty because some old converted even one hundred years before, could be truly Christians, without any memory of their past. Now they also were against the Jews or the moriscos as Torquemada and sometime were spying on them, even if showing friendship.

But after some days of observation, using the sign of the Cohanim with the open hand between the two central fingers, with half smiles, observing what others would have eaten or not during the meals, he could recognise some of them. But it was dangerous to approach them and it would have been better to wait once in the open sea, to be sure not be denounced for proselytism. Aharon was observing the others sailors and finally there was a particular attention by a Leone de Luria who from the name could be of Jewish origin. He was a young men with black hair, lively eyes, a nice open smile, not very high but evidently a man with a lot of muscles: maybe it was not his first enrolment, maybe he was an expert sailor and could teach  Aharon some tricks on his new life and about the dangers of the sea and of the relations with the others on the ship. There would be enough time to get a good acquaintance but  Leone was already very friendly with him and helpful. When the appeal had been complyed, the captain introduced Colombo as admiral of all the three ships, gave the order to prepare for sailing and finally the boats moved from the docks. Nina, Pinta and Santamaria received the greetings of all the people of Palos, because it was extremely rare to see three big vessels leaving together: not everybody understood that it was a very important trip but the fact that imperial authorities were there, was making that day, a day to remember.

8) Amsterdam

They went through many countries and frontiers: the trip has been shorter for Guido and Evelina, followed by Maria who was taking care of luggage and documentation since the novios were lousing and drowning themselves one in the eyes of the other or smiling without any worry of what could be wrong. Don Lewis did chose a longer route: from Lisboa the ship arrived to Le Havre and then he traveled to Amsterdam on a carriage. He chose the long trip by sea because he needed to bring many religious objects and many precious things in silver and stones hidden in the luggage, he had letters of credits for his trades and all this was important to recuperate the money sent with the  invoices  of the last few years. Guido and Maria had inside their dresses other copies of important documents, while Evelina was wearing the family jewellery in strange places: in her shoes with high heels, in the decoration of a powder box, in such a childish style that nobody would possibly think that the stones were true ones. At the same time Evelina was wearing her new jewels, the ones Guido and her father had given to  her on the wedding day: her status of young lady of a good family requested her to wear jewellery and it was a guaranty that every officer at the frontier would have an adequate reward. Thanks G-d the two different trips were successful  and all the family arrived at the Amsterdam house that Don Levis bought some years before. He was already foreseeing the bad future of Jews and Moriscos of Spain and establishing an office and a trade post for his scientific instruments he though to by an house in Amsterdam. It was more than an office: they were two houses joined together and at the first floor of one there was the office while  in the other spaces Don Levis  organized his home and it was easy to create another one for the new family. As the Jews used in Spain, the two houses had, in the first floor, a door connecting them, ready to be open or closed whenever  necessary to escape from the office downstairs. Guido and Evelina house had a foyer with a study and a hall, on the second floor on the back there was a big kitchen close to another hall and a dining room. The kitchen overlooked  the canal where a boat ready to leave was always docked. The two houses could connect with the canal through twin stairs and twin courts. From the second floors small high stairs were connecting with the third floor where there were three small rooms for each house. Those two big halls on the first floor, if opened together would testify for Milot, Barmitzwah, weddings: they were hoping that the Catholic world would forget about them letting them live their life!

9) Ines and Paulito

Ines and Paulito couldn’t be quiet not even for few days: they received the announcement of the requisition  of the Jews’ houses by the Catholic Inquisition and the Spanish Crown. They had immediately brought to the judge the act that certified them as being catholics as well as their right to a permanent usufruct of the houses. The judge took time to decide and send them away, ordering a postponement of the requisition. Then, very upset because he felt being fooled by the Jews, he went to the royal palace to talk to the central office of the Saint Inquisition. He  talked with Don Alfonso, the main Inquisitor to explain the problem and get an advice:” These Jews went out of the country but, before leaving,  they blocked their properties with a legal act of usufruct in favour of two old people, Catholic ones whom we never suspect of heresy, they always attended  mass, they regularly take the sacraments, they have children who are loyal to Spain, so I fear that we could not require the houses in the future!” Don Alfonso asked if the two were still servants of the Jews but the judge told him that they have been fired and payed when the Lewis left and so, there wasn’t any bond that could be illegal. With the filthy sensation to have been fooled, Don Alfonso and the judge kept the time-lapse cancellation of the requisition but ordered a regular checking of the houses, should the Jews ever come back .

Ines and Paulito for the time being were safe but they noticed that the surveillance had intensified: so they sent the news to Amsterdam and Sicily hoping that also Aharon would be updated: in Spain the return of C. Colombo was expected in the coming months and then Aharon would come to the door with a serious threat. In any case, they had agreed on signs for danger: two lights and lanterns in bright colours that could be seen from the beginning of their calle,  that by night stayed lighted with oil. If Aharon would have seen them, he would have known that he could not go back to the house but he would have gone  to a trustworthy Christian man who should  run and call Paulito: the Jews for centuries had been part of the social and economic texture of Spain and there was a net of conversos or of friends or of good men who were able and willing to help with or without a payment..

10) Toward  Sicily

After the Colombo’s caravels, the Selim ship sailed  towards Sicily: the weather was good and the sea quite still. Some dolphins were following the boat and the crew was enjoying their playing around as a good omen.

Leon and Gavriel were already homesick remembering the atmosphere of their house where concord and mutual support made possible to stand all the dangers and fears from Inquisition. They were thinking about the difficult traveling all the family was enduring and they were trying to get used to the idea that they would not see each other for months or even for years.

When they arrived to the harbour of Palermo after some days at sea, and the admiral pronounced the “free exit”, they took  their small bags and looked for an accommodation that would warrant  them a minimal confort, a clean bed and food as proper as possible and the closest possible to the kasherut they were always trying  to follow.  Moreover they were trying to avoid hosts that would  spy on them!  Palermo was not so big and, shortly, they found close to the Vucciria, the most important open market in town, a juderia and a home with rooms to rent where they could sleep and eat in a friendly atmosphere.

They introduced themselves as Jews from Spain and the householder who was a morè, a teacher in the Jewish community, brought them to a small room with a sloping roof, with a narrow but sufficient bed for the two brothers, with a basin to wash themselves, and a chest in dark wood to put their thing, two chairs and, best of all, a window with the view of the market and of the traffic of people around the Vucciria which was a central point of the town. They would eat with the family the kosher food prepared by Signora Lucia and the family’s children started to play with those young men that were speaking a strange but understandable language and were happy to play like two boys!

11) In Palermo

Gavriel and Leon went sightseeing in  Palermo and they understood that in the city there were people from many origins and that the Spanish Inquisition did not ruined yet the peaceful atmosphere that they were feeling. They asked about which merchandises were most exchanged and they started to organise meetings with the major merchants of the town. Their family was quite well known also in Palermo so it was easy for them  suggesting possible exchanges through their office in Amsterdam. They were showing lenses useful for machines,and for long distance vision and they found an artisan able to build the frame for telescopes: in a few days some of them were ready and an optician, close to the harbour, offered  to sell them. The boys  sent to their father requests for other lenses and with the opening of an account and a credit in a bank, that important Jews of the community  suggested, Palermo became at least for some time another branch of the enterprise of precision instruments “Levis i hijos”.

12) In high Seas

As long as they were moving away from the coast, birds were more and more difficult to see and then there was only the sea around them.. Knowing to be  a convoy of three boats could give some security, but seeing nothing towards the horizon was scaring and indicated to all seamen, even to those who were  not yet aware, that they were sailing without knowing how long the trip would last even if Colombo studied the maps  for many years.

Aharon was keeping a registrar of what he was planning to prepare for every meal and he understood very soon that in a short time they would run out of food and fresh water and that they had to find an island to refurbish  the galley with what was needed. He discussed with Colombo and they decided to decrease the food rations even if they were still enough for adult people. The sailors though worked very hard, in windy days, with sun and salt tiring them and they really needed much more than a normal ration of food and specially of water!

Moreover they did not see any bird since a lot of time and there wasn’t any gust of wind: the boats did not move on a truly still sea and the sailors were fishing to deceive the time but they did not catch any fish, as also them considered the caravels as accursed. Anxiety and hunger started to unnerve the crew : Aharon decided with Colombo to prepare a better dinner with more food than usual, hoping to calm down the most ferocious ones who were already trying to organize some riot against the highest officers.

Luria told him that there were rumors about a mutiny and without even thinking about it, he finished his report saying :”Has ve halila”, a jewish expression that was said in difficult times against a serious danger. Aharon smiled to his new friend and tried to easy his worries but the hunger, the shortage of fresh water and the stillness of the ocean were indeed serious matters to think about. After the dinner, the atmosphere looked better and the officers went to the admiral room to evaluate the proceedings.

Colombo did not want to go back towards Spain, because they were too far away and he was sure that in a few days they would see the land: so the crew could stand hungry and thirst for some more hours! Anyhow  they organized guard shifts to check on their crew and they put their people guarding the hold and the admiral’s apartment; they decided also that no officer could go around alone and they should all be armed. Thanks God that the morning after, the winds were blowing and they started sailing again.

13) Languages in Amsterdam

Don Levis knew well the town and while Evelina and Maria were taking care of the houses trying to make them comfortable and a bit similar to what they left in Spain, he went with Guido to the    Sephardic    shul  ( synagogue) for the morning prayer: their arrival raised a lot of curiosity: they were asked how they could escape, there were people asking for news about relatives still there, about the edict, about the difficulties of such a long trip. All of them were speaking in Ladino or in Spanish or in Portuguese and Guido thought to be at home.

The Gabbai of the shul called the congregation to concentration in order to start the prayer and the silence of the Amidà (main prayer) made all of them think to what they lost moving around in the world. After the service Don Levis took his time to talk with the closest friends who left Spain before him and they decided a series of meeting for Guido and for himself to start the business of his office in Holland. They got a lot of invitations for Shabbat but they needed some rest and quiet to get accustomed to their new life. There would be time to meet friends and have them over, only in good occasions.

Evelina and Maria went out to look for places to shop for food and other essential warehouse that the house did not have: they were living in the Jewish section  and  downtown was not far away. Close by, there was the flower market and Evelina was taken by the beautiful view of the flowers mirrored in the canal and even if they were already full of packages they bought some flowered plant for the house. She thought to the painting she did in Spain and decided  to draw again to describe the emotions that this beautiful town was giving her. They talked in Spanish with the merchants in the Jewish area and also buying the plants has not been difficult to sign which one they wanted without speaking the Dutch.

Don Levis and Guido came back in a  house where already they could feel the scent of the  Judaico Spagnolo cooking and a peaceful meal stated the beginning of their new life. Guido knew his father in law very well and him being alone at that time, it was natural to create a good understanding and to enter  the family business. So he tried to study the world of the instruments that were sold by the Levis and worked on compasses and astrolabes. He was particularly interested on time calculation and was also studying the making of watches that were then in use: his mathematical mind was able to find new solutions of which he discussed with artisans and in few months he could produce far better instruments that were shown in wood boxes, perfect for the most elegant houses. Moving around to show the changing on the watches, to buy the new material needed, to order the new products made him to learn a bit of Dutch that was important as soon as you went out of the Juderia.

Following Guido, all the family decided to start to learn it and one evening every week a young Jewish Dutch was coming to Levis house to teach the language: they were all improving very fast because just for fun they were speaking dutch between themselves  and in this way they were learning while  laughing and playing, not being serious at all!! In those moments Don Levis did forget the worries about his sons so far away  and was almost thinking that they were out just for few minutes!

The Jewish community was divided in  Sephardim and Askenazim and the Jews from the northern Europe saw with uneasiness the new members of the Amsterdam community: they were worried for their business and for the massive presence of people converted to the Catholic faith and reconverted: Conversos and Marranos or crypto Jews all returned to Judaism as soon as arrived in Holland but the pure Askenazim thought that they were ignorant and not really orthodox. Moreover they were worried for spies that were sent by the Spanish Crown to look for people with families still in Spain and to get news about the commerce that was so important both for Spain then for the Jews.

Obviously also the Levis went through a silent examination in the first months but with their way of working, their seriousness and their opening the house to the community, they were well known between all the Jewish people of Amsterdam,  also the Askenazim invited them to do business together and to socialize during their Shabbat. The Levis started to learn Yiddish too because it was important to understand what their new friends and working partners were saying.

14) On  Colombo’s Ship

Even if the wind finally was blowing, the life on the boat was deteriorating: sailors were discussing with fierce expressions and they moved away if an officer would pass by; some were discovered while they were trying to open the door of the canteen  and they were put on arrest on the vessel’s cellar: but when they got out they were more hungry and thirsty and upset than before!

And quickly all went wrong: not seeing leaves or branches on the sea, not even a bird, made unbearable to pass another day and it was impossible to go back! The sailors went on the bridge in front of the admiral’s room and called for Colombo : he made himself visible together with the higher officer and told them to wait a bit more, making them sure of the arrival in a short time and ordering a better meal for that evening, and a communal mass at the end of the day.

But some of the most angry sailors moved toward the hold where Aharon with the cook and his helper were trying to make the door more resistant: the men went against the helper who was very thin and they throw him down stairs. The cook put himself against the door with a big knife on his hand: he was a big man accustomed to the upraising of sailors that sometimes did happen on high sea and knew that only showing strength and decision, they could convince them to go away and that a diplomatic way of speaking was useless. They started to look at Aharon and to insult him:” “You, Jew, how did you became an officer, who did you pay? Give the keys to us, let us see if you did eat our meat, if you did bring your matzots made with our blood!” They were more and more close to him and Aharon could not go away: they pushed him and then a slap and a last pushing made him fall against the corner of the wall, and he fainted.

When the men saw him on the ground, they run quickly away while the cook and the helper  took him to his room. They bandaged his head trying to clean away the blood and the cartographer tried to reanimate him but for some time he could not bring him to consciousness. Then, little by little Aharon came back from the white light that was engulfing him, he opened his eyes and saw close to him don Louis and Luria who looked very worried. He smiled a bit but while his friends were redoing the bandage that by now was too much bloody, he fainted again, losing his consciousness.

After some hours he lost that dreamy status when you see  relatives already dead and you have memories looking too much real. He thought to be at home, when he was a child and his mum was kissing him. The headache was now horrible but from his suffering he could understand that he was alive. His friends were making shifts to be with him, in order not to let him alone and the cook came to see him and Colombo too went by. It has been  Aharon’s wound that  stopped the upraising and the sailors took care to force the worst of them to the jail. Moreover there was a better news: branches and leaves were moving on the sea and this was the sign to be close to a land…

15) Beshertz? falling in love

Gavriel and Leon had to decide whether to stay in Palermo or to go again to board the Selim ship to Istanbul. They did not know what to do: they were pretty sure that the edict would be put in effect also in the Italian regions under Spain’s dominion but in Sicily it was easy to learn the language, so similar to their ladino and for now they were enjoying freedom and a good life which they have been missing for a long time. Istanbul would have been a choice on the long run but the changing of their life would have been more radical. So they decided to stay in Palermo thinking like two young people as they were: optimistic and fatalistic .

Gavriel saw, many times from far away, the niece of his landlord and he was feeling shyness, emotion, when he thought to meet her on the streets, seeing a flower on another girl’s hair, mistaken by his memories of that one vision.. but  a Shabbat, in their hosts house,  another table was added and, for dinner, the family of the girl with all her brothers and herself arrived: Grazia, that Grazia Braha which Gabriel was often seeing in his dreams was in the same room, seating not too far away between the other girls of her age. Leon understood the brother’s feelings, even if they were not clear to him and even the children saw how the presence of Grazia was moving him: they thought that Gavriel was sick, sick of love!

The Shabbat dinner was rich and  joyful and when the men started to talk about the weekly portion of the Torah, Leon explained to the other guests that, back in Spain, Gavriel lead sessions of studies and asked  his brother if he would like to talk. The boy could not refuse in respect of the other guests and started to expose his comments, talking about famous Chachamim of Spain (saviours). He was very good at it and his preparation drove out his shyness: his words enchanted everyone and the end of his speech met a general Kol ha Kavod.(honour to him)

Gavriel looked toward Grazia and she, for a short time, looked back, then she bowed her head with a small smile. Grazia did Jewish studies and since she was teaching to her small pupils, she was able to explain the Torah better of many old men but modesty forbade a woman to talk in public: in any case she could maybe discuss some points with Gavriel after the dinner, in the small garden where all would have gone to enjoy the mild weather while the children would play and run around. In effect, little by chance and a lot because Gavriel wished to know her and was not moving his eyes from her, they started to chat looking at the streets of the ghetto and Grazia explained kindly to him, her point of view on the Parashà. Gavriel enjoyed the discussion and appreciated her cleverness and asked her something on her life. Grazia was curious about their escape and the edict and the conversation went on and on, as if they were  friends from a long time ago. Leon went to fetch them and was the right thing to do because a young couple could not stay alone for long, even in public, and they decided to meet again soon and Gavriel was so happy not to have gone to Istanbul!

16) Headache

Aharon did not move from his bed for many days, and he could not stand up, also because his headache was worst when he tried to seat. Only resting was useful and he tried to comply to what the Cartographer ordered. Food  and water were even more scarce but leaves and branches and birds were increasing and finally the sailors were able to see something that was not ocean and after other three days, when also Aharon was outside, the word Terra sounded high on all of them ! Land! It was heard by all and a prayer was said by all the crew. They saw the line at the horizon and understood that they were not to die at sea! The future was still uncertain but at the moment the odds were with them. From then on, another day was beginning on the ship: happiness and smiles were exchanged between the sailors faithful to Colombo and also those who tried to mutiny: all were looking at the seagulls flying over and started to prepare nets to fish. Every day the coast was closer by, but they thought it was a promontory or worse, an island: if so they would have to go on toward Indies.. Don Louis was worried because he started to think that those lands were not around Indies but a different place: in effect he did not remember that type of flora around China which he visited many times, the branches brought by the current at sea were of mangroves and nobody saw them before.

Aharon now could breathe better: now they were able to add a lot of fresh fish to their poor diet and even some bird that they were catching around the ship. He was having a long recovery, he was still weak with swirling dizziness and  strong headaches when he was trying to take something from the floor or simply seating or standing up. But the imminent docking was more exciting then every discomfort: he was foretasting for Leon and himself the going around in a lively oriental city, with a rich market place, Chinese people and strange food with new smells and tastes.

It was completely different from what Aharon had foreseen: they  stopped in a small cove surrounded by a coral reef  and as soon as  they were starting to drop the boats a lot of pirogues did appear, driven by naked men, with an amber skin, with high cheekbones and  black eyes and hair almost blue. They got arms, spears and arrows but they came in peace, smiling  and singing to the sound of their drums: they were bowing themselves toward the ships, surprised and puzzled.

They were armed but smiling and bowing so it was clear that they were friendly and even astonished by the first white people they were seeing. Colombo ordered to get down to meet them, leaving Aharon and the cook on board. When they came back they were really puzzled because they tried to speak with them in many different Asiatic languages but nobody was understanding and the civilization level was low in comparison with Indies. Notwithstanding those findings, they declared that the island was to be called San Salvador and would be offered to the Crown of Spain by the Governor and Viceroy Colombo.

 They decided that samples of flora and fauna would be brought back to Palos  with some indigenous Indian. They made many trips between the land and the ships and they ventured inside the island  looking for precious materials to bring back. However there were few results, even if some kind of eatable tuber and some hard stones of beautiful colours could give some hope of business in the future. With a new cargo of water, food and some strange souvenirs, the boats sailed again on their way back home.

Leon, Aharon and don Louis started to discuss how to behave once in Spain again, since the Edict would be in effect. They thought about  leaving the expedition in Portugal or in another place more friendly for them. They were worried also for Felipe Todros who was not converted and decided to ask  Colombo where the ship could disembark them before Palos.

17) Love in Palermo

The looks that Gavriel and Grazia Braha were exchanging were not  unnoticed and the landlady invited the young people of the family also the next Friday. Gavriel and his brother were happy to be with a lot of young people and tried to help to prepare the festive dinner. They cooked a piece of lamb with rice, onions, grapes, carrots and pine nut: it was a delicious and a not very costly course, because mixing with a small quantity of lamb, fried and cooked,  the other ingredients  all shredded in small  pieces and adding  a quantity of cooked rice three times that of the meat and vegetables, a great meal was ready. They prepared also the orange salad which were cut and treated with lemon, oil and salt. In this way Sicily and Spain flavors were finding a nice meeting point as it was happening during the meal: the brothers started to sing in Judeo Spanish and their voices were so nice that all the guest were enchanted. When Gavriel started to sing “Padre Bendicho” as final prayer for the meal ( the Birkat amazon) Grazia Braha did not know how to hide the redness on her cheeks that was increasing every time Gavriel was looking at her; but the warm sound of his voice gave  her a feeling she never experienced  before! Moreover the brothers got out of the room and came back giving to every woman at the table a folding fan: obviously the two most beautiful were for their host and for Grazia, who finally could hide herself under that fan so nicely embroidered. The evening had been too short and Grazia and Gavriel left each other already missing their being together. The door was not even closed that the young brothers of the house started to make fun of Gavriel without any restraint, laughing as hell, till even Gavriel started to laugh with them.

Meanwhile the new projects were bringing good results and with the new lenses ordered from Amsterdam, the first letter from home by Don Levis arrived: he explained their new life and described how the couple was well established in the  semi attached house on the canal and how Guido was experimenting on the watches and had good success both on  scientific and  business grounds. From the letter you could see the worries about Aharon of whom no news were coming: if his staying in Indies would be impossible, how he would escape to the Crown’s police if he had to come back to Spain? All the strategies and the steps taken with Paulito were a small thing versus the Inquisition who was waiting for the return of some Jew who tried to avoid the edict. The only thing to do was waiting for some news, trying not to think to the worse, but sleeping poorly during the night when there was too much time to think and to worry.

Gavriel was not in the mood of thinking bad: the hope for a wedding, for his new life between the Sicilian Jews that were becoming as brothers for him, the success on the marketing, made him satisfied of his life: he had always  been the optimist in the family and he was sure that all of them would resettle well everywhere.

Leon was more reflexive and being almost alone in Palermo, was making him quite unhappy: he was the younger one and the first steps in a different world were quite difficult for him, but his music was helping him a lot: when he was free from work he took out his violin and played the antique rhythms from Spain without thinking that they were of different origins: Arabian, Gipsy, Jewish, and also from the Church! In effect in the last two centuries the brutal cultural oppression obliged the Jewish communities to keep what was acceptable from the Christian society and there had been a big rehash of the melodies of every origin: using Catholic tunes for the prayers when they were not tuned with low voice. Usually their voices were not intelligible from outside because  was safer to pray without notice.

 Leon was helping Gavriel in the new marketing of the lenses but his dream was to continue  studying music and composition and to live of that, even if he knew well how difficult it could be!

18) Escape

After many days at sea, when already they were seeing the Portugal coast, the four Jews of the boat decided to get out in Palos, since Colombo thought that another stop would create more suspects and would be referred to the Inquisition’s spies also because nobody could alredy talk of the expedition, as a great success and some inquiry could be made by Crown officers on the harbour during the landing. So they arrived in Palos, and at the harbour little by little a lot of people was coming to see them disembarking and to see what they were bringing from Indies. Then the plenipotentiaries from the Kingdom arrived, to take with them what Colombo brought from the trip. There were music, flags, when Colombo, dressed like a prince, got down from the boat. The four Jews could not see him: they were hiding in a small room in the hold, hidden by the empty water casks.

Only the cook knew where they were and he would be the guide to their safety. When the parade was finished and all the men left the ships. Around  the night was dark and in the taverns all the sailors were drinking wine: in few hours they would be all drank or asleep. That would be the time to get out from the ship and nobody saw the five men leaving the harbour in silence, waiting for each other, running to the next black corner. Out of the harbour, in a small country pathway there was an old, big horse and a wagon. The cook worked all the day long to prepare for the escape of his friends, so they went inside the wagon and the cook covered them with a lot of straw to hide them completely. The cook made the horse start to move and they went toward the Christian friend of Paulito. They arrived when the night was leaving, before dawn and after having hidden the wagon, the cook called Giuseppe who opened the door with a lot of care and worries. The cook told him to go and to call  Paulito while all his guests would stay in his house only the time necessary to look for Aharon’s servant. Giuseppe knew what to do and made them stay in the room under the house where he kept oil and wine and gave  them some apple and water. He went out immediately, because it was safer to move before morning and entered in the Juderia, moving around a lot to confuse whoever would spy on him. There was already people walking, so it was normal to enter in the Jewish quarter. He did stop at the baker shop where he sent the helper to call for Paulito: when he knew that it was not only Aharon to keep and save but four men, he was out of his mind: it was already dangerous and difficult to hide a men, imagine four!  Anyway they decided that at three o’clock in the night they would go to the Guido’s house passing from the small door of the patio that the old men would leave open..

19) Running away

At three o’clock the next night, they entered and Paulito was able to embrace  Aharon  but he was moved seeing him so emaciated with a big scar on the head of which Aharon told him all the story. The old man was suspicious, so he studied the friends of Aharon and immediately he did not like Todros because he had a not very clear look: he inquired about him with Aharon who did not know enough about him and so, maybe for too much attention on the possible danger, Paulito said that they had protection and places to go only for three people and Todros, the last one to be known as Jew, should go by himself. He did not react and Aharon thought that maybe he had misjudged  the new friend.

The next evening Paulito brought Todros through difficult and unusual ways out of the Jewish quarter while the others, through the internal courts, reached the meeting point with their driver. In this way Paulito made very difficult for Todros to ever recognise their home, should he be a real spy. The three sailors were bewildered when they saw a Catholic hearse waiting for them and moreover when the coachman gave to them three monks robes, the ones were using the Monatti, people in charge of collecting corpses of people stroke by pestilence. They were to follow an empty coffin for a funeral expected in Palos. The fake monks were laughing all the way because the idea of Paulito was unheard of and very fanny: no guard would inspect a coffin and a carriage lead by Monatti: it would have been too dangerous! So nobody stopped them and they arrived on time to sail on the Limes, the ship that would have brought them to Palermo, as monks with a payed trip, finally enjoying a small vacation at sea! Even if there has been no problem whatsoever, they were happy to see the ship leaving Spain.

What about Todros? Nobody saw him but there were a lot of inspections in Levis and Cohen houses and the police went to ask around, even inquiring about Giuseppe but nothing came out and it was impossible to prove the passage of the Jews. In any case Paulito sent a letter to Don Levis to plead not to come back to Spain for a long while ! Don Levis answer gave him some night of rest and peace but…

20) Do not trust

In the letter, Don Levis explained to Paulito and also to the boys, who should be by then in Palermo, that  Todros’s father had been a man with a big heart : he collected some orphans and gave them his name, keeping them in his house as son and daughters. Those who were originally Jews had a Jewish life but they did not convert again to Judaism because it was only dangerous at that time. Felipe has been of all of them the most difficult one and he went away as early as possible, keeping instead contact with the convent from which Don Todros did rescue them and maybe he was using the Jewish surname to mislead the others:  they had been very lucky that Paulito understood that something was wrong with Todros.

Don Levis admitted that he did not know of disappearances or arrests of Jews caused by Felipe Todros  but it was clear that the spies could be  silent for years before starting to destroy a family. Now it was Paulito to worry about and so Don Levis asked him to go to live with his sons for a while and come back in the Juderia only when the visits of Inquisition would decrease. It was possible that Felipe would  now   a Dominican spy and that his sailing on the Santa Maria was made to intercept the Jews or Marrani on the ship and to watch for what the Admiral was doing: there were some suspect also on him as too much friendly  with the Jews.

Meanwhile, during the trip to Sicily, the boys enjoyed to be monks and were in charge of the confessions of the sailors, keeping in mind all the stories about war and about what was going on in the harbours with women, about whom the sailor’s wives did not have to know.

Don Louis, even if  was wearing the same vest, did not want to confess the men because he did not want to say the catholic formula after the confession but the two boys, knowing  it was fake, did not bother to say: ”Ego te absolve, in nomine Patris, Filii…” and in the ship a celestial peace was over all of them and  sailors were content to be clean as  babies. When they arrived in Palermo, as they did in Palos, they waited for the night and when all were out, they landed on the dark, throwing away the vests. They had the address of Gavriel and Leon and they went there, looking for the Vucciria. Palermo was not a big town so looking for the market had been easy enough and then in the Juderia there were two streets in which they recognise the house with the small garden in the back.

21) Palermo’s reunion

Aharon knew that the brothers were sleeping in a small room in the second floor so he got some small pebble and started to throw them against the blinds that were closing the only window. Then, there were no glasses on the window so he could not make any damages. After, he started whispering the motive of “Adon Olam” according to the Judaico-Sephardi rite and, finally, the window opened up and Leon who could not resist to music, saw them, smiled and told them to shut up and to wait for him to come down stairs. Few moments later, he opened the small door and, followed by Gabriel, the brothers got in a big hug. Then they were introduced to the two friends and entered in the kitchen where also the landlord, awaken by Gavriel with a lot of care, was waiting for them. To awake someone in the night was always for ugly reasons, so it was important to immediately explain that nothing bad was happening! But this time the new guests would mean new earnings and the landlord had only to find the way to give  them a room. After they ate a bit, the boys gave up their room to the cartographer and to De Luria while they continued  talking with Aharon, in the garden, behind the house. The following night  they put another pallet on their room for Leon who could sleep every where and the other two guest went to sleep in the attic at Grazia Braha but they would eat with the Levis.

Gavriel was more than happy to see his brother about whom they all had been worried but really he could not avail the idea that  Leone da Luria, a young and handsome sailor, would sleep in Grazia’s house and could meet with her in the kitchen and could talk with her and smile to her. He was tormented by it: he was feeling a new very unpleasant sensation, he was sick of jealousy! That same evening the five guests were together for dinner and Leon da Luria told to Aharon that in his house there were two beautiful girls, but one was very shy, with low eyes, always by herself but the other, Beatrice, was more sociable and lively. Later on, Aharon saw that  Gavriel was very upset with Leon da Luria who could become a problem for his love to Grazia that, up to now, was interested only to him! When he understood that his brother was jealous, Aharon did not know if leave him alone or save him from his bad temper, then he realized that Gavriel really was in love with the girl and told to him of the interest of Leon in Beatrice and he praised the way of doing of Grazia who did not bother to even look at De Luria. Gavriel at once was upset because Aharon waited to tell him right away about the conversation with De Luria, but the lightness of the good news made him happy again and he started to do stupid things, behaving as the small boy he still was inside and would be  till the end of his long life.

22)  A new trip?

After the joy of being all together and the relief after the dangerous trip and the staying  in Spain, they had to decide how Aharon would go on with the family business. In a letter Don Levis told them of the double face of Felipe Todros and suggested that Aharon would not remain in Palermo but go to Venice or to Istanbul were the market of nautical instruments and of  watches that Guido was opening, could became very interesting. Don Levis knew of Aharon passion for books and knew how he was gifted in the art of  protecting them from molds,  taking care of the layout and of the embroideries of ancient texts. He saw then his moving to Venice as a good opportunity to keep with the family business and to let him enjoy the proximity with Aldo Manuzio and his print shop, that was known worldwide. Moreover the Dogi did not let the Inquisition to prevail in Venice and the Jews could live and work quite free even if there was a Ghetto and a curfew for the night.

 But Aharon was still too tired from the trip and from the wound on his head, to evaluate all the pros and cons of the choice, so he did let his brothers take care of him, enjoying the Sicilian way of life with the smells, the tastes of the Mediterranean land, watching the loving duels that were taking place around him. The next Friday they went to Grazia’s house and Aharon  amazed the guests with the blue stones he brought from San Salvador and with those tubers that for now were already sprouting. They decided together to cut them, keeping a sprout on every part and they would plant them on the two gardens which had different sun exposition: in this way they would give to the tubers the possibility to grow in a way or the other. They decided also to call the stones “turquoise” and they would put them in gold after drawing the right frame: they  were sure that the stones would bring good fortune.  During the meal both Grazia and Beatrice were looking to the floor while Gavriel and Leon da Luria were trying to meet their eyes. Then, after the final grace, they were walking in the garden and Gavriel went to talk to Grazia: he wanted to ask her if he could go to her father to ask for the permission to visit her but all the children started to play and to make a lot of noise, until the songs that Leon started to sing, full of sweetness and longing, made them finally quiet. Gavriel now had to leave Grazia to come back home with the others but her father on the door hugged him and invited him for the next day to drink a bit of Rosolio (sweet wine). To Gavriel  the kind invitation meant a blessing, since Grazia standing behind her father was smiling and also her mother was smiling!

The boys, on their way back looked like drunken people: they were singing, laughing, embracing each other: it was very far from them the sad atmosphere of Spain with the fear, the suspicion, the dark alleys and the Inquisition! The day after, Shabbat, on the afternoon before the evening prayer, Gavriel, dressed up at  his best, and went to Grazia’s house where her father was waiting for him in the living room. They went to seat in front of the garden and they talked of Gavriel work and of his development. Gavriel tried to talk in Italian but some time he needed to speak ladino because his vocabulary was still not rich enough. Then, after a long silence, he managed to ask  his host the permission to know better Grazia, for whom, he admitted, he was feeling a serious interest. The father, trying to keep an intimidating aspect, told him he was giving his blessing because he was looking as a serious young man but he specified that, as usual then, they would not be alone, never, and they would see each other only in his home, far away from the “lascion harà”, the bad talking that could put Grazia’s honour on danger. Gavriel was more than happy and reassured his host of the seriousness of his intentions: it was not yet an engagement  but it could be a short cut to that. Now, finally, Grazia’s father offered the Rosolio and with the wine he could smile to the boy which he did like from the first meeting. They entered together in the garden and Grazia and Gavriel were able to talk openly for a long time, while Grazia’s brothers were making a mess all around with a ball made of rags.

23) At home on the canal

Evelina was able to organize the two houses, helped by Maria and by two young servants who were working  from dawn through sunset and they were helping  where it was needed. In this way,  when the two living rooms would be open together for a big dinner, an event or a Jewish holiday, they would know from where to take china and silverware and how to behave in public. For some days Evelina had not been feeling too well  and Maria thought that the sickness could be caused by her first pregnancy. When the nausea became daily, Evelina decided to go and ask for suggestions to madame Seroya who now was living in Amsterdam with her husband. She went with her to see a midwife who told them they were right and explained how to cope with nausea and some dizziness, typical of her condition. In the evening she told  Guido the good news and he was delighted but he felt an enormous responsibility on himself. He was conscious of the danger that Evelina was going to endure.  He  decided to spend more time with her, decreasing his travels: when a trip would be necessary Maria would look after her. Don Levis had a similar reaction: he was moved and happy by the idea of a new baby in the house, safe from Inquisition, but he was feeling the need to protect even more his daughter, even if all their love could not protect them from the danger of pregnancy and birth. Maria was proud of Evelina, how only a mother or a big sister can be, but that night, in her room, she was longing for a similar destiny: to become a wife and a mother and she was planning a talk with Don Levis to have his  help for  looking  out for a novio.( fiance’)

Then, as the destiny was working by himself, while she was going to buy what was needed for Shabbat, and she was really loaded with all sort of packages, a young men started to talk to her in ladino and told  her to be Felipe Torres, just arrived from Spain. Gently, he asked her if he could help with the packages and Maria gave him some of them , with pleasure, because she was tired and the young men was so nice and well  behaving. The same meeting happened again the next Friday, by chance, and it became a nice habit. Maria now sometime was thinking about Felipe and once she let him  enter in  Evelina’s kitchen. Felipe was very interested on the life of Maria and he was always asking questions to which she answered gently but, accustomed as she was, not  saying anything of sensible or dangerous. Due to her past, she never told him something important about the family and after a while she was puzzled by all that curiosity.

Their meetings were now a fixed appointment in the mornings when she was going for errands and the family noticed how Maria was now more happy and lively and they understood that her change was due to that nice sweet young men who was so friendly and respectful to her. Maria was not so young anymore and was time for her to taste a bit of happiness. If Guido and Evelina were not worried for the new serenity of Maria, Don Levis was not peaceful: after years of persecutions and treacheries he wanted to know personally who was having any relation with the family and he was already worried for the Todros’s episode. One morning, after Maria’s going to the market, he started to walk around on the street that skirted their canal and their houses and when he saw Maria from far away, he saw the young men too, he saw his face and his heart lost a beat because he knew that men well enough. He recognized  Felipe Todros: so he was now in Holland, he changed his name in Torres and all of that was not just a coincidence!

24) What to do?

When he recognized Todros, immediately he thought to run to Maria, to take her away from that danger, from that man so unfaithful but he could not do that. He had to think something else, he had to wait for Maria inside the house and take measures to protect all of them without making a scandal: they just did arrive from abroad and had to behave as all the Amsterdam’s citizen. When he saw that they entered  Evelina’s Kitchen, he waited for some time and when finally the man left, he called Maria using the gong he brought with him from China and was used few times because whith his sound all the glasses could brake: it was a signal of danger!  Maria went immediately, worried for his boss, and he was in effect very pale and was sitting at the table in his study with his head between his hand, and he could not smile to her as usual…

“Maria, a very serious thing  happened and I need your help.” He said to her and told her who was that Felipe Torres whom maybe she was in love with and how that friend could be deadly for all: sure, now they were in Amsterdam, but the boys were still in the kingdom of Spain and the Inquisition was present also in Holland ..Now Maria was whiter than Don Levis and she was crying: just when she was hoping for a change in her life, she was falling down again in the worst of her nightmares.

Together they decided that she would not get out for some days and that one of the young servant would give a letter to Felipe in which she was explaining she was suffering of malaria and she could not meet him. In the meantime Don Levis would think how to get rid of him. It could be  in a dirty and violent way of but it was important to defend the family and all the community. When Maria was finally more quiet, Don Levis went to the Schola Sepharad and asked for an urgent meeting with all the senior members: he told them of Felipe Todros in Amsterdam and asked their help to neutralize him. The Gabbaim were with him. Helped by a guard of the temple, they would put a gold chandelier from the synagogue’s  treasury in Felipe home and then they would bring the police and he would be arrested. Felipe was known by all, because he was praying with them and all the Gabbaim were asking themselves if they could have said something dangerous about their relatives in Spain, while they were talking freely with Felipe during the Kiddush or the Melave Malka… (wine blessing and meal of Shabbat evening)

While one of the two servant of Don Levis was asking Felipe to write an answer to Maria’s letter, the guard was already inside the small room where Felipe was living, a place that was very poor from outside but was full of nice furnishings, carpets and paintings: it inspired a sense of  wealth but also conveyed the idea that it was a place where stolen objects were collected. The guardian did put a rimonim’s couple and the chandelier with other religious objects and went out without moving other things. Meanwhile the police with two gabbaim were looking at the meeting between Felipe and the young servant and when Felipe went home they followed him and they arrested him few minutes later. They took back what was of the Sephardic Synagogue but also a lot of Spanish doubloons and other precious objects. Felipe was questioned by the inspector Van Eyke and some of his answers were in contradiction: he was using the two Jewish names but also two catholic ones and he had a pass from the Spanish Crown. He did not know how to explain all the money and valuables he had in his room and how come a Christian as he was, was still praying at the Sephardic synagogue and going around with Jews.  In the meantime he was talking badly of them when he was at the harbour, drinking with fellow sailors.. At that point the police put him behind bars because he was forbidden to go around in Holland with four different identities and the robbery was a less important matter.

25) Punishment?

The next days the policemen checked the origin of the objects in his house and they were properties of Jewish families sent away in 1492, who were robbed at the frontier as a last insult. This was a proof that Felipe was working with the Inquisition and he  was  a spy and a dangerous man also for the Dutch government. Don Levis and the Gabbaim would have  liked keeping him in Holland, in prison but it was more likely that  police would expel him. He could come back in Madrid as an hero, putting  Paulito and Ines at risk. Don Levis thought to poison him in prison but he was not a violent man so he waited for Guido and Evelina before such a drastic decision. That same evening, talking with them and Maria, who was full of hate and anger  at being deceived as a Jew and a woman, Guido suggested to stop Felipe in Spain, talking about him as a Cripto Jew   and inducing suspects in the Inquisition. When they discovered in which ship he would go back to Spain, a lot of letter were sent from the Gabbaim and from some Jew the existence of which they invented, to other Jews of Spain that did not exist, but these letters would be read by Inquisition. In those letters they were talking of the generosity of Felipe toward poor Jews, that he bought chickens and hallot for them, that he was helping young women on the street, using hahavà hesed ( good spirit) and trying to study Chodesh ( the saint language) to finally be proud of his Jewish surname. In a letter, a fake Mohel  was telling about the circumcision ceremony he would conduct and that his new name would be Haim. All the Kahal (community) of Amsterdam knew that these news were not believable since he had been arrested and sent away but they would create some doubt in the Dominicans and this would interrupt his carrier as a spy for Spain. After a week finally Maria could get out with Evelina but she was always looking around, worried to meet Felipe even if  from now he was already in the ship sailing to Spain. The good thing about all that was that Don Levis and Evelina understood that it was time to look for the best possible husband for Maria!

26) Shidduk, encounter

Don Levis thought about his friend,  the cartographer, and he sent  a letter inviting him to Amsterdam, telling him about what did happen to Maria, praising her cold blood  and her maturity. Both of them were not so young anymore and had to cope with a lot of terrible problems in Spain: maybe it would not be love at first sight but, since they knew each other before the expulsion, it was possible  that they would like each other and that a serious relationship could sprout, bringing serenity to both of them. The Levis would surely miss a serious help and an important presence in the house but it was time that also Maria could start her life, hopefully still close to them. The answer, even after some days due to the time of the delivery, was prompt and positive: Don Louis would arrive  in Amsterdam after a stopover in Venice, were he would go with Aharon, who finally decided for the town of printers. There Louis could introduce him to many friends in the Ghetto and in the Arsenal. Louis would be more than happy to meet again Maria and to try to know her better: he remembered her with respect and pleasure. When Maria was informed of Don Louis answer, she thought about her memories and feelings: she had to admit that she was confused and feared not to be ready for love and moreover she never thought of Don Louis as a suitor.

Eva was heavy with the pregnancy well under way and started to fear for the delivery: she hoped that Don Louis would take a lot of time to arrive because she needed to be close to Maria, her harbour, her bigger sister, quite another mother for her: she was feeling again as a baby girl, she missed her mum.  Guido, even if  was kind and considerate, was useless and did not know a thing about pregnancy and fear. Maria was always with her, caring and present like a mother and Eva could be sure that her baby would open his eyes looking at the most sweet aunt of Amsterdam!

27) Moving..

Gavriel was working on his future life with Grazia, thinking about a wedding, trying to find the right home for them, always knowing that there was a possibility of moving again if and when the expulsion would be extended also to the Spanish territories  in Italy: in that case they would be obliged to leave  Palermo too and he was in  pain because the business was well organized and profitable: having corresponding branches around Europe and a net of acquaintances all over, guaranteed to Gavriel a certain safety  in the business he knew from his father. To look for a house was more difficult, because the Spanish Kingdom did not allow ownership of new houses to the Jews and the leasing was possible only inside the Juderia who was already full of tenants arrived from Spain like Gavriel, and no houses were available right now. His guests and Grazia’s Family were helping the couple because it was time to announce publicly their engagement: after  a few months the honour of the girl would be put in discussion and it was time to decide for a wedding date. Finally a good news arrived: close to the harbour, right by the end of the Juderia, there was a small house on two floors, where on the ground floor they could put the office and through a door they could enter in their house: at the end of a small stair there was the second floor with two rooms and a living. On the other side of the house there was a big kitchen who was facing on a courtyard with a century old olive tree. The house was property of an old friend of Grazia’s father and they were happy to lease it because they all were going to Turkey and the house needed repairs. Leon and Leon da Luria offered  their help with the painting of the apartment and they made a lot of small improvements and repairs. They drew flowering  branches behind the nuptial bed and the colours of the drawing with the light red and pink, gave a dreaming atmosphere to the room. They changed the tiles in the kitchen and they paved the courtyard using tiles similar to those used in Spain. At the end they were stupefied because that courtyard looked alike one of their internal courtyards in Granada or Siviglia! They finished hanging pots at the external wall of the kitchen with geranium   creepers and they planted a jasmine through the grates of the windows: his scent would pervade the house from April through May and June. Now they could think to the furnishing and to the wedding proposal!

28) The hand

Aharon had already left for Venice with the cartographer and Gavriel who was feeling a bit alone when it was  time of important decisions for him, wrote to his father telling of Grazia and asking for his Beraha’ (blessing). His father answered talking of Eva pregnancy and of the capture of Felipe who finally could not make any damage to them. He sent to him and to Grazia his berachot and every possible wishes of happiness and healthiness. To this letter he added another one to Grazia’s father, in which describing the good qualities of his son, he was asking for the hand of Grazia and offering a participation to the expenses for the wedding. He sadly could not be in Palermo because Eva was due in a short time but it would be his pleasure to invite all the family, after the wedding, to Amsterdam to know each other and to honour the new couple and the new baby. Don Levis did not like  that his sons were still under the Spanish Crown: he knew that the limbo in which they were living in Sicily could not last longer and he was hoping that they were thinking of the next move, knowing that wedding and pregnancy would make everything more difficult.

When Gavriel received his father’s letter, he talked to Leon: he told  him it was time to ask for Grazia’s hand, even if it would not have  been a surprise: the new house was already rented and furnished and he was working there in the office. Grazia was waiting for  the proposal, preparing her nuptial kit and was already drawing in her mind her nuptial dress. She was particularly beautiful because she was living in a dream that was coming true and was difficult for her to hide her joy. Gavriel asked donna Lina to iron his Shabbat dress and did put on a new shirt, and he was very handsome. Also Leon dressed the best he could and  put on a bow tie in lively colours as an artist would do. They went toward Grazia’s house and when her mother opened the door, it was clear that they were expected  with great pleasure, since the house was festive with flowers and in the air there was the good smell of the fruits pies and of the exquisite orange cake , speciality of their Shabbats.

Grazia’s father was waiting for them in the porch and when they entered he stood up to great them. Gavriel told  him of his father’s letter and of the one for him: although  it was written in ladino it was not difficult for him to understand don Levis’s request. Without other words Grazia’s father embraced Gavriel and told  him it was an honour to give his daughter to a member of such an important family, religious and Sephardic as them. What he was saying, showed that he did took information about Gavriel and so he  liked him after serious enquires. Leon was hugged too and after a few moments all the family was introduced in the room : the mother was close to Grazia which was still shy and was red on the cheeks even if now everything was clear and permitted. Grazia and Gavriel tied their hand together looking to each other and they were alone in the world even if in the room everyone was laughing, singing and dancing.

29) Venice

After a very long trip, changing horses every now and then, trying to enter as little as possible  the Pontifex kingdom, stopping over only where there was a Jewish community or eating only fruit and vegetables with what they could bring over with them, finally they were close to Venice and when they arrived in Chioggia they took a small barge that ferried them to Venice. Being again at the sea and close to their final destination gave them some more strength: they were longing to  sleep in a good bed, to wash themselves, to speak freely, not fearing to be heard and denounced as suspected traffickers. They landed close to the Spinalunga island. With all their belongings, they passed under a small galley from where they entered into the Ghetto, between high rises and  synagogues that were hidden as houses, in order not to be recognised from outside. It was forbidden to build them on the open as it would be considered proselytism and thus forbidden by the Venetian authority. Don Louis knew where to go because he knew a lot of people there and he was friend of the owner of the pawn shop which was right on the square. They entered in the small room and they saw rav Calonimos sitting on the bench, looking at some stones on a gold brooch with a magnifying glass.

“The friend I’m introducing to you will bring  you much more precise lenses and after that nobody could give you something false!” The rav knew very well the sound of that voice, so he  looked toward the door and smiled recognising don Louis and went to embrace his old friend.  Don Louis did work often in Venice from where ships left continuously toward every country and his charts were appreciated by the ship owners and by the local bankers. Louis introduced Aharon and rav Calonimus closed the shop to bring his guests home to rest and to tell  to his wife  and sons about the arrival of his friends. They again passed through the square and entered in a small street close to the rav’s house. It was a duplex apartment with very low ceilings but with many rooms, where a room was always ready for the wandering Jews alone in town, who were obliged to live in the Ghetto, depending on the hospitality of  others Jews, even if they did’nt know each other. The rebbetzin Calonimos had always ready her “sarde in –saor” - which could be kept for some time and she prepared the table with bread, olives, fresh vegetables, sarde and  also a chevre cheese which she bought from the Venetian land : the kasherut was checked by the same rav Calonimos. To prepare the sarde or every other small fish she was putting flour all over them and deep fried them, then she would put them on a small container alternating the fish with a sauce made by carrots, onions, fried in garlic, oil, red pepper cloves and kosher vinegar. After the good meal Aharon and don Louis talked with the rav, telling  him about their trip to San Salvador with the famous Cristoforo Colombo and about what happened in Spain and in Amsterdam with the bad behaviour of Felipe. Rav Calonimos told  them about the obligation to wear a yellow hat when going outside the Ghetto. He told  them about the arrival of many Jews from Spain and that he was waiting for the arrival of Isaac Abravanel in few days, who had succeeded in renting a house in the Giudecca even if there were no apartment left in the Ghetto. Then they talked about  the prospective of work for Aharon and he said that it was possible to find a good market for nautical instruments and lenses and watches since in Venice there were wealth, money and moreover curiosity and intelligence. Aharon asked about Daniel Bomber, the true name of Aldo Manuzio, how he could find him and explained to the family that to bind or fix books was his love, his passion and that he would like  making of this a true work, while, thanks God, continuing to take care of the family business. Rav Calonimos assured him that he would introduce him to Bomber that same Shabbat, since they were worshipping in the same schola even if the printer was of Askenazy, of German origin. The two men that night went to bed serene and peaceful, protected by a familiar environment  where they felt perfectly at ease.

30) Daniel Bomber

Shabbat, Rav Calonimos and his guests went to the Sephardic schola where  Bomber was usually davening, even if in Venice there was a group of German Jews and  their Synagogue  of Askenazy rite. It was usual for the Venetian Jews moving from a way of praying to another, because, beside the different minhaghim ( ways of davening of the family), friendships or appointments for the festive meal between friends, mixed the various communities, knowing for sure that only the union between the Jews would help them  overcoming  life’s challenges, often worse than what the goym ( not Jewish people) would suffer.

After the Kiddush during which they were singing the wine’s blessing, Calonimos introduced his friends to Daniel Bomber and immediately the conversation became a close dialogue between Aharon and the famous printer: they fixed an appointment in the shop for the next day; Aharon was jumping inside for the joy of meeting and talking with that important man, also because there was a possibility to work with books, to study the different prints and bindings, to repair the most ruined, to take care of new prints! He happened to  be there at the right moment: the arrival of many Jews from Spain gave a lot of new work to Bomber since they were requesting the holy books they could not smuggle from home. The printer was in bad need of a helper and it was a nicer thing that Aharon was talking Ladino and knew about the art of printing and binding. Moreover it was clear, from his way of talking and the sharpness of his eyes that he would learn quickly what he did not know...

31) Pains

In Amsterdam Eva was in her last days of pregnancy and she was extremely restless: she was thinking to be an enormous ball and she was not even sure to  have still her feet, since she could not see them, hidden by her belly! She was feeling a terrible backache and after every meal she was feeling heartburn. She could not sleep well during the night and every morning she was feeling more tired than the evening before.

Maria urged her to react and obliged her to get out and to come with her for the morning shopping and Guido came back before sunset to walk with her along the canals, passing through the flower market which Eva did not get tired to look at, and the perfume of the flowers gave her a new energy. Then they stopped to buy the famous raw herrings that people was eating on the street. Eva disliked the smell and the taste but she knew how much  her father loved them and they served them during the Shabbat, before the meal, together with olives and other specialities on which they would recite berachot: the costum was that if the Shabbat meal would be full of blessings, also the week would be good and lucky. The Friday dinner and the Shabbat lunch were the only meal that Eva and Guido were consuming with Maria and Don Levis on the father’s dinner room, prepared by Maria and the two girls. Normally in the other lunchs Maria and Eva were alone in Eva’s kitchen and when the two men came back from work, Guido was with his wife and Maria had dinner with Don Levis: in this way he was not alone and the young couple could have a little of intimacy. And just that Friday night Eva started to feel as a hand was twisting her belly every few minutes and there were moments when she could not breathe from the ache. This happened every ten minutes. They sent immediately the two girls to look for the midwife and for senora Seroya to whom Eva was very attached and who gave her a lot of advice and protection. When the time between the contractions was only of three minutes, Maria brought Eva in her room where she had already prepared the bed covering it with many layers of old sheets to protect the mattress and bringing many candles to make a lot of light. When Gosta, one of the girls, came back with the midwife, Maria told her to go to light up the fire that was burning under the ashes and to put water to boil: it was Shabbat and it was forbidden to light up the fire but the girls were Christians and for this reason, on emergency, they could do what was normally forbidden. The midwife entered in Eva’s room and the presence of that expert woman calmed her down. She told her to breathe longer and deeply between the contractions, she wet her forehead and she listen to the baby through her belly with a special horn. All was looking good and they had only to wait for the feeling to push . Meanwhile the Seroyas came and while the husband went to cheer up Don Levis and Guido, which were awfully worried, Maria went with senora Seroya to Eva : she sat close to her bed, kept her hand  and started to talk quietly to her in a soothing way: since she was a “balua” i.e. a very strong lady, her strength passed to Eva as only a mother could have done. Then it came the time for pushing and in another half an hour the house resounded with the cry of a new-born baby who was not so happy to have left the warm nest on her mother’s belly.

32) A surprise

The midwife  did cut the umbilical cord and did put the baby close to the pale face of Eva who, even if exhausted, checked out that he was all complete, proportionate, with nice black hair, and he looked already more quiet. After his warm bath and having taken care of Eva changing her gown and her bed with many covers because she was trembling and was feeling cold as reaction to the great effort done, the men finally could enter in the room and Guido was able to see her son: the first Cohen de Veali in a welcoming country!

Even when the guests went away, Eva couldn’t sleep because of all the emotions and the sensations to have been saved from a death’s danger she had been obsessed by, in the previous month! Guido was sitting close to her keeping his baby and they were all feeling a full moment of accomplishment and happiness. Her two men were alike: same curly dark hair, same amber skin, regular features, pronounced and fleshy mouth, almost girlish.. Eva said thanks to the Almighty for the escaped danger but also for all the happiness she experienced from the day of the engagement to Guido. She should stay in bed for some days, as it was prescribed, to prevent the danger of serious bleedings, but for the Milà (circumcision) she would be ready to participate and suffer for her baby. She was said that her brothers were not able to be with them to celebrate the event: it was impossible to give them notice  on time in order for them to arrive for the circumcition, since it would take much more than  eight days, so she would write to them only after the small operation, when she could say to them the name of their first nephew. Eva could not know that Aharon decided to accompany to Amsterdam don Louis and that, after the final setting with Bomber, they would be already travelling to Holland and that they could arrive even before Shabbat, when the circumcision, with God help, would be performed. Aharon was feeling a lot of nostalgia for the family he was not seeing since the 8 of Av of 1492, when he went toward Indies on Colombo’s ship and he decided with Bomber to start working after a short vacation with his father, useful also to buy goods to sell in Venice and to buy certain particular materials that were needed in the print shop.

Don Louis told to Aharon about the future meeting with Maria,  and Aharon was very happy about that news: he liked them a lot and knowing them so well he was upset not to have thought to the encounter before his father! He could not have thought of that because Maria for him was like a big sister and he never felt that she was a woman too, ready to get married and to have a family for herself! That Thursday evening they knocked  at the door of Don Levis which was alone then, because the three women were in Eva’s kitchen to prepare cakes and biscuits for Shabbat when after the milà a very rich breakfast would follow. He went to open his door to be embraced by his son who could not stop to kiss him! They were really moved because the months before had been dangerous and challenging, particularly for Aharon and Don Levis many times avoided to think to what it could happened to his son so far away.. Then also Don Louis started to greet his friend while they were entering into the house. Aharon went around to look for the first time to the new house of his family and found the room where Eva was breastfeeding the small baby: kisses, crying, laughing followed while Guido started a dance of joy for the arrival of his best friend. Meanwhile Don Louis was organizing with Don Levis his introduction to Maria but in the end all was natural and simple: when Maria came to ask where she  should prepare the rooms for the guests, she said hallo to her possible husband with hands dirty of flour and the apron stained with jam!

33) The first ceremony...

All Friday  women did prepare delicious food for the Kiddush ( vine blessing and refreshment) after the Milà : also in Seroya’s   house   they were working for the ceremony and they would bring everything before Shabbat, on Friday night, before the first visible star. The Sephardic community was invited and also many of the Askenazy group would come.

After  Friday night dinner, Louis  and Maria could finally seat quietly by themselves to chat in Don Levis study and they talked to each other about what happened during the month of  exile, from the departure of the Santa Maria. They were sitting over two armchairs, one in front of the other, with the door open, as convenient when a men and a woman are in the same room and  they are not married. Meanwhile, in the living room  the baby was passing from one hand to the other, showing to be quiet and well nourished: they were looking for similarities with the most loved relatives but for now the baby was just Guido alike but in pocket format! Eva, who was up for the first day from the delivery, was enjoying to be back to her life and for the visit of his brother. He brought  them the same strange sprouts to plant in the garden and the stones that he called turquoises with whom Eva would have a necklace made. Also Louis had some turquoise for Maria and for her he thought about a ring and earrings to match with some diamonds too but it was too soon to give them to her!

After the prayer of Shabbat morning, around eleven o’clock,  all the guest started to arrive and  they were waiting, sitting or standing, for the Mohel ( the performer of the circumcision)to dispose his instrument on the white tablecloth, after boiling them before Friday. Eva was a pour soul: she knew that her baby would suffer only few seconds, already stunned by the sweet wine given to him by the Mohel, just a small amount but enough to make him less sensible to the pain, but the idea that her baby would suffer, was unbearable as for any mother! Guido too was worried and it was not better for Don Levis  who bore the big honour and the responsibility to hold the baby on his lap, keeping firmly his legs in order to ease the work of the Mohel. A lot of emotion were involved in the ceremony and the assigned rules have an ancient history and serious meanings. The choosing of the names took a lot of time to the couple who decided to give honour to their mothers so missed and so loved. The name of Eva’s mother had been Lucia from which Luz and Guido’s mother had been Ariela from which Ariel: the baby would have an important name : Ariel Luz Cohen de Veali and would become a good and valorous man, with justice on his mind and attention toward the others.

Eva was waiting in the study after passing the baby to Maria and then to Aharon: he was on a big pillow, not too soft, with a beautiful cover: the same that had been used for her brothers so many years before. When she heard the crying of the baby and all the berachot, she cried too but in a few minutes Maria came bringing back Ariel Luz, who decided to calm himself with a finger on his mouth! Eva started to breastfeeding him and the baby, through the sweet taste of the maternal milk and the proximity to his mummy forgot all his pain.

34) Projects

After the Milà  the buffet opened: on the tables there were salty and sweet foods, all made with milk: cakes with almond and oranges, jams tarts, food of Arab inspiration already normal in the sephardic custom: khoraieba, sweets with pistachios, spinach or cheese tarts, omelettes, smoked fishes, fish rolls, fried anchovies, white rise and rise with pine nuts, carrots  and raisins, fruits and the new treat: chocolate.

Don Levis was happy to introduce Aharon who was in Amsterdam for the first time and Louis, to whom did not know him already. Talking with the Seroyas, they started to talk about Felipe who  was coming back in their thought as a fastidious ghost, difficult to get ridden of, as there would be still to worry about him or as he would have become the symbol of ancient or recent fears.

Maria was checking Gosta and Berle work, helped by some waiters taken for the occasion and only when, after two hours all the people were gone except for the Seroyas who were like at home, she continued the conversation with Louis, talking about memories, projects but also worries: Maria could not think to Don Levis leaving alone and to Eva without her help, right at a the time when, as a new mother, she needed a smile, another hand, an older friend. But Don Louis told her of the idea to find a house as close as possible to them and explained to her about his willingness to share Maria with the Levis, finding nice solutions for all of them. Don Louis was a really generous man and it was natural to him that Maria would not want to leave entirely the family with whom she lived so many years, the family who saved her. Moreover they were dear friends to him too! So he established a schedule: he would look for an house close to them and he would be travelling between Amsterdam and Rotterdam while Maria would be looking for a housekeeper able to look after the two houses: she would be a nice lady in order to assure  Don Levis a  discreet and pleasant company while giving Eva a serious help. After taking care of everybody, they could think to their wedding. They were not  in love to each other  yet, but they had a good understanding and they had the same principles and ethics priorities and they were ready to mediate to look for a solid, mutual satisfaction: love would come!

The next day Louis went to look for a house and shortly he found one close to the Levis, on the same canal but much smaller: there were  ways  to improve it adding a covered veranda on the back, but the two bedroom would be enough for now. The interiors should be renovated and they should change what  was in the kitchen but the big fireplace and the living-room were attractive. For the time being the second room would work as a study-office for Louis and after the building of the veranda, half of it would host the big drawing table for the cartographer.

For the choice of the housekeeper they decided to have a meeting with all the family: Maria told  them what she decided with Louis and they  kiss them with joy; then Don Levis explained to them that he would prefer to host someone who would need asylum staying among friends and giving her a kind of refund and a reimbursement of expenses rather than hiring  a professional: at this point they decided to look for ladies in exile from Spain.

35) Two Dominicans

A complicated time started while Louis organizing his life in Amsterdam: one day, thanks God when Maria was with Eva to help her with Ariel Luz, two Dominican friars knocked to the door and Gosta let them enter  Don Levis study. One of them was Spaniard and the other was Hollander. The Spaniard asked Don Levis if he knew Maria, a converted he thought of living with him. Don Levis , with the promptness of spirit of a man used to defend himself and to see the danger before it occurs, put his hand to cover his face and after few seconds he told that Maria was with them for a long time but during the difficult travelling from Spain to Holland she took fevers and died before arriving to Amsterdam; he told  them that they buried her close to the country where they speak German, but that he does not remember in which village because it was a catholic funeral to which he could not take part. The Dominicans were not readily convinced but his reddish eyes and his  paleness could tell of his pain: he  had to be as sincere as possible or  the friars would understand. Truly he was petrified  and the pallor was caused by his panic for Maria and for himself! The Dominicans tried with other questions but he kept  answering as distracted by his suffering. At the end he went with them to the entrance door and closed it as much as possible. Then he went to call all the family with the gong they were using in such occasion because it was urgent to find a strategy to defend Maria. It was a difficult evening because it was as they were falling into their terrible past and when Don Louis came he saw and felt tension and worries on their faces but when they told him what happened, the solution came spontaneously to him: ”There is no time, we cannot wait! Maria I ask  you to become my wife with the Jewish name your family gave to you and now it is time you take it back: you will go immediately to our house from where you will get out only when we  are sure  that the Dominicans are gone. I’m sorry, we will not have a true wedding party but I am sure that all the community will help to give us a day of joy! We need however to find another place for the wedding because it is too dangerous in the synagogue...”

Don Levis suggested to ask the Seroyas their living room for the wedding and he was sure that they would be more than happy to help them and sent for the rabbi to write the Ketuba (certification of marriage)and organize the ceremony. Senora Seroya was happy to offer their house and to prepare food for that special evening and in just two days Maria returned to be Ester Cordoba, wife of Don Louis. Don Levis however was still worried  so he tried to arrange for the “death” of Maria and with the help of a client in Alsace, one night they excavated in a small cemetery, out of its walls because she was originally Jewish, a pit where they put an empty coffin and a cross that would look some years old with Maria’s name and the date of August  1492. After that some people went around, talking about Jews and about the death of a young woman, in order to build a story and a memory about what happened. If some Dominican would try to find proof, he would listen to what people was reporting, hoping that none would decide to exhume a body.. Luckily Maria Ester was now in her house, happy to be a wife, ready to stand the fact that the house was not ready and a bit alone because she could not see Ariel and Eva when they would not come to visit her.

Then the turnover of the maids started and the worse one was a lady who did not understand she was going to work in a Jewish house and when she became aware of it, she started to practice exorcism until someone discovered her in the kitchen moving with a lot of garlic all around and praying in latin..  Don Levis did throw her out while she was screaming all kind of curses! Luckily Leon arrived, called by Don Louis to help in the renovation of their house and they decided that it would have been better to find another girl like Gosta and Berle: Gherta came and she already knew them because they were about the same age, and they were able together to keep the houses and to help Eva with the baby, with the quiet happiness of young people.

Leon was the most creative of the family: music and drawing occupied his dreams and his life: as soon as he gave a look to Ester and Louis house made many proposals and after he found the right workers, started the makeover with frescos that gave to the house a touch of Mediterranean feeling and a bit of nostalgia.

36) Five years later..

The Levis family , thanks to the ability of Don Levis to forecast what would happen in a short while, was living well in Holland and in Venice, also because of their money they were able to smuggle out of Spain and of the net of friends they created before the edict.

But other black clouds were collecting on the isle of Sicily: that same edict was now valid also on the south of Italy under the kingdom of Spain and Gavriel and Gracia knew that they had to live Palermo before the other Jews, to find better accomodations and work

They had to travel with the two small girls, Sara and Rebecca, who were two and three years old and they had to decide where to go: Gracia started to cry every time they were talking about their problems, especially  when they were planning not to move with her family who was preparing to settle in Istanbul. Gavriel, as five years before, did not know whether going South toward the Ottoman empire or  North toward Amsterdam and his true desire was to go to Palestine, to Jerusalem or Safed but it was too dangerous with children so young!

In Amsterdam they would get together with Eva who now had Rachel after Ariel and with Maria Ester who had Avraham  and with Leon who was becoming a famous musician, painter and cantor .

In Venice they would meet with Aharon who was still working with Daniel Bomber and who wrote them asking to help him in the shop of his famous watches and lenses which was becoming too much for him alone.

At the end, for the fact that they already knew the language and that the boats leaving from Venice for Turkey were frequent, giving to Gracia the hope to visit her parents, even if the trip was long and dangerous, they decided to move to Venice where Aharon would give  them his house since he was already living in another flat on Cannaregio where also Sara, his novia, would move after their wedding. Her name was Sara Corcos and he met her at Calonimos ‘s Shabbat dinners and the wedding would be celebrated right after the arrival of Gavriel’s family: in the happy occasion they would be introduced to all the Venice Community.  So, Gavriel and Gracia left their house, the jasmine tree, the lavender, the fresco behind their bed crying because Palermo had been good to them and to all the Jews. Say goodbye to Gracia ‘s family was terrible because they knew how long and difficult were the trips by sea but they promised to see each other as soon as possible.

When the Sicilian family arrived to Venice Leon was there  waiting for them: he was already working on their new house and in their bedroom he draw the same fresco of Palermo adding only climbing roses in honour of the two new girls. He was not able to rebuild their loved patio with jasmine and lavender but the life in Venice was promising even if different from that of Palermo: they knew that they had to go on, with mementos from the past and hope for the future : their two beautiful daughters Sara and Rebecca.

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“Many thanks to my friend Sara Acquati and to my husband Remy Cohen who helped me to correct the mistakes I did on my first ever  translation from Italian to English, and It is only my fault if the  language is too simple! All the remaining  mistakes are all mine and I’m sorry for that!”

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To find the recipes of what our friends eat in the book go to: Anna Treves Cohen “Un pò di questo, un pò di quello” cucina kasher di tradizione  and to his Traslation I am preparing.  (Amazon e-book and book)

Index

1-Dona Eva

2- A proposal

3- The wedding

4- Palos

5- Departure

6- On the Santa Maria and..

7- Toward the horizon

8- Amsterdam

9- Ines and Paulito

10- Toward Sicily

11- Palermo

12- On the sea

13- Languages in Amsterdam

14- On the Colombo ship

15- Beshertz?

16- Headache

17- Love in Palermo

18- Escape

19- Running away

20- Do not trust

21- Palermo’s reunion

22- A new trip?

23- At home on the channel

24- What to do?

25- Punishment?

26- Shidduck

27- Moving…

28- The hand

29- Venice

30- Daniel Bomber

31- Pains

32- A surprise

33- The first ceremony

34- Projects

35- Two Dominicans

36 – Five years later

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Many thanks…